The following are common Linux console commands. A large number of these commands are very much like DOS commands (That's because the DOS command was modeled after the UNIX console commands). Before you use all, but the most basic commands, please see the man page or info file on that command for more details on its exact usage.
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| cd | Change to a directory. Works the same as the DOS version of this command. Hint - directories are delineated with a "/" character. |
| cat | Concatenate files and print on standard output. Works like the DOS "TYPE" command. |
| chmod | Change the user and group ownership of files. Also used to set a file as execuitable. |
| cp | Copy files. Uses the same basic format as the DOS version of the same command. i.e. cp source target. Comand line options are place after the comand instead of after the whole line. cp -options source target. |
| dd | Copy disk images. Used to duplicate Linux formated floppies. It copies a set of disk block from one device to another. |
| df | Available free disk space, on all mounted file systems. Let's you see what is currently mounted. |
| du | Disk space used. The display format is at best very verbose (wordly). The -s option provides a summation of the disk space used. |
| elm | Elm e-mail client. A simple ASCII formated mail client. No longer user, but usefull for debuging mail problems. |
| export | Set environment variable in bash. Each user may have private variables. |
| find | Find files. Commonly used as where is file command?. |
| grep | Find line matching a certain pattern. Very powerful shearch tool. |
| groupadd | Add new group. See the chmod command for user access to a given group. |
| groupdel | Delete a group. |
| groups | Displays a user's groups. |
| gzip | Compress and decompress files. Also see "rpm" for other compressed format tools. |
| halt | Shut down system. Closes down all running processes and deamons. |
| host | Look up host information. This command requires a DNS server to perform the actual lookup. |
| hostname | Display host's name. The 'i' option returns the IP address of the named host. |
| insmod | Install modules. Lets you add devices or functions not included in the Kernel, to the currently running system. |
| kde | Start the KDE desktop. |
| kill | Abort system processes. Lets you stop a running process defined as it's pid number. |
| less | Filter for viewing files and directories. Works the same as the "more" command, but lets you scroll backwards. |
| lisa | Start LISA administration system. Used on older Red Hat and Caldera Linux distributions. |
| ln | Create links between files or directories. It's a great way to save on disk space. MicroSoft just anounced it invented the same feature to Windows 2000. |
| locate | Locate files that match a certain pattern. |
| lpc | Manage printer queue. Can even restart the LP deamon itself. |
| lpq | View the printer queue. Also alows you to delete print jobs in queue. |
| lpr | Print files. Directs target files to selected print queue. |
| ls | List directory contents. Use the "f" to show all files. |
| lsmod | View loaded modules. Shows the modules as well their memory requirements. |
| make | Compile and maintain programs (such as compile kernel) |
| man | View manual pages |
| mcd | Change to a directory on a DOS diskette. It has no command line options. |
| mcopy | Copy files to/from a MSDOS diskette. This command will also process text files with a CR/LF pair (DOS style) into a LF only (Unix style), using the "t" option. |
| mdel | Delete files on a DOS diskette. This command has no options. |
| mdir | List directory contents on a DOS diskette. Using the "a" option will show the hidden files. |
| mformat | Format DOS diskette. New versions of "mformat" can also format a disk in fat32 format using the F option. |
| mkdir | Make a new directory. Works the same as the DOS version of this command. |
| more | Filter for viewing files and directories a screen at a time. Also see less. |
| mount | Access or mount filesystems. Used to connect disks and CDs to the currently mounted file system. |
| mv | Move or rename a file. |
| passwd | Change a user password. Only root or the user themselves may change a password. |
| ps | Display process status - Shows the currently running tasks. Use the "aux" command option to show everything including system deamons. |
| rm | Remove files. Works the same as the DOS "del" command. The Linux version has no un-delete command to restore the deleted file. Once it's gone, it gone. |
| rmdir | Remove directories. Works the same as the DOS command. The directory to be removed must be empty(Just like DOS). |
| rmmod | Remove currently loaded module from memory. Used with phyisical device drivers. |
| rpm | Red Hat Package Manager. Extracts and install software into a Linux system. Makes software installation simple. |
| startx | Starts the Xwindows GUI interface. Used to start older GUI interface on the Linux console. |
| tar | Manage compressed archives. |
| umount | Command used to remove a mounted file system. |
| uname | Display information about your system. |
| unzip | Decompresses a "ZIP" file structure. Works the same as the DOS version. |
| useradd | Adds a new user account to the system. |
| userdel | Deletes a user account from the system. |
| usermod | Modifies user account(s). |
| vi | Start the character based editor. A very powerful editor supplied with all Linux systems. |
| whereis | Locate binary, source, and man pages for a given command. |
| which | Display a program's executable path. |
| who | Display all currently logged in users. |
| whoami | Display your currently logged in user name. |
| xlock | Locks the X display console. No one may access the console until a password is entered. |
| zip | Compresses a file or files into a "ZIP" file structure. Works the same as the DOS version. |
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